Energy markets and global supply chains are being empowered by the digital revolution to align financial commitments with climate and sustainability commitments. This event will highlight how the convergence of distributed ledger technology, smart contracts, digitised data and monitoring systems, digitised MRV standards and certifications, and other innovations is helping drive the transition to the low-carbon economy, starting with the base of global supply chains. Panelists will discuss these topics:

A new digital commodity ecosystem comprised of energy and commodity producers and end-users, and market trading platforms is demonstrating how commodities are being valued based on environmental attributes

Creation of new financial products based on real-time, primary production data and independent verifications/certifications

The Climate Chain Coalition is an open global initiative to support collaboration among members and stakeholders to advance blockchain (distributed ledger technology) and related digital solutions (e.g. IoT, big data) to help mobilize climate finance and enhance MRV (measurement, reporting and verification) to scale climate actions for mitigation and adaptation. The Climate Chain Coalition was launched during the One Planet Summit on December 12, 2017 in Paris, France (the 2nd anniversary of the Paris Agreement), as a multi-stakeholder group working on distributed ledger technology (DLT, i.e. blockchain). As of August 2018, over 100 organizations from 25 countries have joined the Climate Chain Coalition. Digital innovation and especially Distributed ledger technology (blockchain) can be very important enablers of enhanced climate action to:

Strengthen monitoring, reporting and verification of the impacts of climate action

Make incentive mechanisms for climate action accessible to the poorest

Support mobilization of green finance

To encourage exploration and eventual use of this technology in support of climate action, the UN Climate Change secretariat initiated and facilitated the creation of the Climate Chain Coalition (https://unfccc.int/news/un-supports-blockchain-technology-for-climate-action). The Climate Chain Coalition is organizing workshops and a public networking event in the context of GCAS2018 to facilitate broad collaboration among all relevant stakeholders and in order to galvanize financial as well as intellectual resource mobilization for the creation of the technological infrastructure for multi-stakeholder engagement in climate action.

Forests, Food and Land Day: Bringing Soil to the Forefront of the Conversation
Co-hosted with The Nature Conservancy, 4 per 1000 Institute, WWF, Soil Health Institute, Danone, and others
12 September 2018, 8:30 - 17:00Herbst Theatre

The GCAS Forest, Food and Land Challenge Coalition are hosting this one-day event to showcase the essential role of land and food systems in addressing climate change, delivering the message to climate activists and leaders in all sectors that we cannot succeed without capturing the greenhouse gas reductions, improved climate resiliency, and many other benefits from natural ecosystems and working lands. This event will bring together farmers and ranchers, foresters, Indigenous Peoples, business leaders, elected officials, investors, artists, citizens and more who are working to fight climate change — who together, can deliver up to 30% of the climate solutions needed by 2030.

Explicitly targeted for the second half of the century in the Paris Climate Agreement, carbon neutrality is a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and removal by carbon sinks. The longer we wait to reduce global net emissions to zero, the greater the likelihood of experiencing extreme weather events. Net zero emissions is therefore a major climatic imperative, but the framework is not yet commonly defined at company level, including the scope of commitment, deadlines, emission reduction targets, or the use of carbon offsetting. This event hosted by Carbone4 brings together pioneering companies including Orange and ENGIE, as well as key players in climate action (Science Based Targets and Gold Standard) to discuss the evolution of carbon neutral commitments and how to make these tangible and deliver value for a business or a city.